Andrew Wiggins led Huntington Prep to a pair of wins at the tradition-rich Marshall County Hoopfest in Kentucky last season. UK fans are hoping he returns to the Bluegrass State to play his college ball.
Photo by Wayne Litmer
*Update: Huntington Prep head coach Rob Fulford announced that Wiggins will sign his letter of intent on Tuesday.Andrew Wiggins is high school basketball's consensus No. 1 prospect in the 2013 class.
The
Huntington Prep (W.Va.) star is considered to be among the most talented players to come along since LeBron James made the jump from high school to the NBA in 2003.
And he's apparently
really confused about where he wants to go to college.
The 6-foot-7 wing and native of Canada is considering Florida State, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina. Five staffers at 247Sports.com have predicted the Seminoles will prevail in recent weeks via the site's
"Crystal Ball" feature.
If only it were that easy for Wiggins, who is one of just three 247Sports 2013 Top 100 players yet to pin down a destination for next season, and the only remaining elite uncommitted and unsigned prospect that will actually attend college in the fall.
His recruitment has spawned its
own website, where fans can vote on where he should go (North Carolina leads the way) and follow a Twitter feed devoted to mentions of him.
According to Grant Traylor of the Huntington Herald-Dispatch and Huntington Prep head coach Rob Fulford, even folks in the crab cake industry are getting involved.
Yes, the crab cake industry.
"Last week, we had a guy who delivers crab cakes for a living say he overheard (North Carolina coach) Roy Williams saying Andrew was going to commit to them on such-and-such date and people believed him," Fulford told the Herald-Dispatch. "So I have to respond to national media about Johnny Crabcakes as a source.
"If a guy that sells crab cakes for a living is a source for the best high school basketball player in the country, our country is in a mess."
Not to be outdone, more traditional outlets are also feeding the craze for Wiggins-related content. A quick Google news search turns up at least a dozen stories about his recruitment from noted sports media sites in the last 24 hours alone, including CBSSports.com, ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports.
All the attention is no surprise given Wiggins' immense talent and his potential impact at the college level.
Wiggins would give likely preseason No. 1 Kentucky an unprecedented, unimaginable and perhaps even unmanageable recruiting haul, making the Wildcats must-see TV in 2013-14.
He immediately turns Kansas and North Carolina into Final Four contenders.
And he does pretty much whatever he wants at Florida State, which probably holds some appeal and even more so considering both of his parents are 'Noles. Brother Mitchell Jr. also plays a few hours away at Southeastern University in Lakeland.
College basketball's spring signing period ends May 15. Wiggins — who produced 23.4 points and 11.1 rebounds per game as a senior at Huntington Prep — can still hook on with whatever program he chooses following that date through a financial aid agreement.